Creative Resistance to BID Placemaking in Rochester, NY

In Rochester, New York opposition by arts organizations, creative professionals and allies coalesced into a No BID ROC campaign to stay a downtown BID project. Based on content analysis of plans, campaign materials and news media, this case study juxtaposes pro- and anti-BID perspectives and, focusing on the narrative and visual strategies including humor and political cartoons, examines the campaign’s “creative resistance” strategies. No BID ROC, focusing on urban democratic governance principles, broke open received BID policy justifications by decoding and reframing the “constitutive storytelling” that policy entrepreneurs have deployed to establish BIDs across the United States.